


Ready or Not

by WaitingForMy



Series: Imaginary Friend [4]
Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Emotional Manipulation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 06:14:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15880209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaitingForMy/pseuds/WaitingForMy
Summary: The Neibolt House is the perfect place for a game of Hide and Seek.





	Ready or Not

“Ready or not, here I come!”

The house at 29 Neibolt Street was larger than it looked on the outside. Strange echoes cascaded down the staircases and along the halls, allowing any loud enough noise to fill the entire house. Such was the case for your bubbling laughter, brushing through the and dissipating in dark corners like clean water soaked up by a dingy sponge. Your little footsteps thumped against the wooden floors as you ran down the hall in search of your friend. Behind you, the hard tick of a grandfather clock. In front of you, the kitchen, where the ghostly tracks you made in the blanket of dust and grime on the floor would carry your memory for months.

Rats scurried away from you from and in every direction as you flung open the low cupboards one by one, squeaking their offense at your invasion of their privacy. In a few short years, the thought of wading on your hands and knees through dust and mouse shit would disgust you. At the time, at six years old, you barely noticed. You wiped the offending substances off on your coat and carried on.

The fridge, long unplugged and left to corrode, caught your eye. A flutter gripped your heart as you took the first step towards it, the residual voices that filled the house grew from a whisper to a roar in your ears as you took the second. Your stomach flipped when your hand settled over the handle. You held your breath as you threw open the door to reveal…grimy shelves, empty except for the inconsequential carcass of a bug your young mind could not identify. You closed the door.

Making your way back through the hallway, you were drawn to a door you had never been through before. An unexplored part of his house – the perfect place to hide!

The door, once opened, revealed a staircase that descended down into the Earth. You took each step carefully, gripping the splintered railing on your left that was almost as tall as you were. The hollow, wooden stairs snarled beneath you as you placed one foot, then the other on each one.

The lack of light shining through the milky windows near the ceiling reminded you how late it was getting, but it was okay. Your parents always told you never to go out at night without an adult, but Pennywise was an adult.

At that point, there had been an Amber Alert out for you for an hour.

In the basement, your game of Hide-and-Seek was forgotten, as your attention was captured by the ring of stone in the center of the floor. You approached at a casual pace, and when you reached the well, you got up on your tippy-toes to peer down into it. You couldn’t even see the bottom!

“Hello?” you called down.

“Hello? Hello? Hello?” your voice echoed back.

Your scream echoed just as loudly as two large hands grabbed your shoulders, yanking you back and spinning you around. You found yourself facing a very stern looking Pennywise, who bent at the waist to come closer to your eye level.

“Be careful with that, [YN],” he warned. “We wouldn’t want you to fall, now would we?”

You crossed your arms over your chest. “I wasn’t going to fall!” you insisted. “I was just _looking_.”

“Insolent child,” he growled. “Do you not trust me to know what’s best for you?”

You didn’t like it when he got angry. He always made you feel bad, when he was angry.

You dropped your arms. “I trust you.”

“Welllll then...” A smooth grin stretched his lips. “I guess you found me. Now, it’s _your_ turn to hide.” He tapped your nose with the tip of his finger on the word ‘your.’

“Close your eyes! No peeking!” you commanded, grinning back.

Pennywise made a show of tilting back up to his full height and covering his eyes with his gloved hands. “Thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight, twenty-seven…”

You ran as fast as your little legs could take you back up the stairs, then up another set. You could hear him nearing the end of his countdown – you could hear him no matter where you were in the house – as you dashed down a hallway. Your feet barely touched the floor.

You found yourself in a room that was empty except for a forest green armchair. The very last rays of sunlight from the day glowed through a mostly boarded up window.

“Ready or not, here I come!”

You looked around frantically and smiled to yourself when you saw a closet door resting halfway open. You hurried inside and closed the door, filling your eyes with soft, inky black. You couldn’t see a single thing.

You settled yourself down on the floor and listened for your friend’s approach, noticing perhaps for the first time all year that it was beginning to get very cold. Your winter coat was hardly enough to protect you from the bite. The stuffiness of the closet, holding in your body heat, was welcome.

You felt around the closet and curled up in the corner, leaning your head against the wall, putting up the hood of your coat to use as padding. You could hear the soft jingling of bells as Pennywise moved about the house, muttering the occasional, “Oh my, where could she be?” That made you smile and giggle to yourself.

You loved him, but even more than that, you trusted him. You were sparing a passing thought to how much you loved him when your world shifted.

Pennywise was sitting in the green armchair, cradling you like a baby. You looked around, confused.

“I found you,” Pennywise giggled, “all curled up and asleep in the closet.”

“Oh,” you murmured, upset that you had fallen asleep during your game but too comfortable and sleepy to pay much mind to any of your emotions. You looked towards the door. “I’m tired. We should go home.”

Pennywise pouted. “This _is_ home. This is _my_ home. We’re having a sleepover.”

You looked towards the door again, and you thought of your parents. You hadn’t told them you would be out all night, or out at all.

“Ah,” Pennywise said, reading your mind, “but you’re with an adult.”

You were so _tired,_ you just wanted to go to sleep.

“I will keep you safe.”

You _felt_ safe.

“Don’t you trust me, [YN]?”

You trusted him.

“Okay,” you agreed, yawning. “But I want to go to sleep now.”

Pennywise smiled. “Go to sleep, then.”

You snuggled into him, and he gently petted your hair.

“You are beautiful,” he said.

His mouth didn’t move when he said it, and you thought that was weird, but you were just too tired. You let your eyes close. There had been an Amber Alert out for you for two and a half hours.


End file.
